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Foreign Minister Maas on the Brexit negotiations
At a joint press conference in Berlin with the Foreign Ministers of the five Nordic countries, Foreign Minister Heiko Maas made the following statement today (17 October):
The agreement reached by the European Commission and the UK Government gives us reason to hope that there may be an orderly Brexit after all. That is a good thing – because a no-deal Brexit would be severely detrimental to the citizens of the EU and of Great Britain. The agreement has been achieved thanks to compromises on both sides. I would like to express special thanks to Michel Barnier and his team. He has truly accomplished a diplomatic feat, provided that an orderly Brexit can now go ahead based on this agreement. We will have a close look at the legal texts that we have been provided. I do not want to pre-empt discussions in the European Council and the European Parliament, but we are very relieved that an agreement has now been reached by the negotiating teams.